Hip-hop, R&B and jazz on menu for ‘Tastes’

Annual Takoma Park festival features more than food

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo File photo Visitors at the 2005 Tastes of Takoma at Columbia Union College wait in lines to sample some of the food.

Among the entertainers scheduled to appear at the event Sunday, which takes place on the college lawn at 7600 Flower Ave., are R&B singer Porsche Smith from Oakland, Calif., local jazz band The Young Lions, self-described folk⁄progressive⁄Afro-beat singer Bilal Salaam and The Tumbao Cuban Jazz Band, a 14-piece group well-known among the area’s Latin community.

‘‘This year, I would say that we have music that everyone in a sense can like,” said Tastes of Takoma Entertainment Director Andrew Cousins, a senior public relations major originally from Brooklyn, N.Y. ‘‘We have everything from indie rock to soul⁄R&B to jazz and neo-soul.”

And while last year marked an effort to include entertainment that appealed to Latino audiences, parts of this year’s program will have a uniquely African flair, including a troupe of drummers and a special host for the six-hour program, Wayna, an Ethiopian-born singer⁄songwriter who was crowned Miss Black Unity at the University of Maryland in 1995.

‘‘A lot of people know her as the ‘Ethiopian Queen,’” Cousins said. ‘‘... I am really, really proud that we were able to get her to host.”

Other acts for the festival, which runs noon to 6 p.m., include hip-hop theater performers Hueman Prophets, R&B singer Carter Anderson, the rock band Shapiro, a group of Latin dancers and the Takoma Park Middle School Step Team. The college’s acrobatic team, the Acro-Airs, also will perform.

The festival also will seek to appeal to varied gastronomical tastes with an equally diverse selection of local restaurants and caterers, said Food Director Genaye Channel, a junior broadcast journalism major from Las Vegas. Abiti Ethiopian Restaurant will join a menu complemented by Thai and soul food, while Takoma Park’s Middle East Market and Silver Spring’s Lebanese Taverna will offer popular favorites, including vegetarian dishes. Pizza Palace and Subway also will join the lineup, along with funnel cakes and ice cream.

‘‘I tried not to repeat any food [types] and somehow get something that we’ve never had before, which would be the Asian food and the Ethiopian food,” Channel said. ‘‘It was kind of difficult to not get several foods that overlap each other, and we were able to do that, minus a few.”

While the focus of the festival is providing music, food and family fun for people in the Takoma Park area, the team producing the event is made up entirely of Columbia Union students, and the festival itself is a classroom project.

‘‘I think this has really helped me learn ... the power of just getting out there and asking for things,” said Festival Director Wayne Binkley, a senior public communication major from Oregon. ‘‘I think knowing and working with people in the community, that definitely helps in building contacts, but it also shows my future employers that I can take on responsibility and get out there and try something new and different.”

Binkley also gave credit to the event’s sponsors, including the college and its radio station, WGTS-FM, Washington Adventist Hospital and the City of Takoma Park.

‘‘All of these sponsors help us realize our ambitions,” he said, ‘‘not only through financial support, but they also give us tips and advice every time we ask questions.”

If you go

Takoma Park’s annual festival season kicks off with Tastes of Takoma noon to 6 p.m. Sunday on the lawn of Columbia Union College, 7600 Flower Ave.

The free event will include music and dance, a variety of food vendors and a children’s area with moon bounces and a petting zoo. Washington Adventist Hospital will offer free health screenings during the event.

Parking is available in college’s lots, and the campus is served by Ride On’s No. 12 bus, which runs between the Silver Spring and Takoma Metro stations, and the No. 17 bus, which runs from Langley Park to the Silver Spring station. Bus schedules are available by calling 240-777-RIDE (7433).

For more information about the festival, visit www.tastesoftakoma.com.